Dr. Louis Iverson - Landscape Ecologist, U.S. Forest Service Northern Research Station

The climate is changing. Tree species currently residing at a specific location are at variable levels of risk of change (increase, decrease, or stay put), depending on where they are relative to their overall distribution, their particular traits, and the severity of the changing conditions. We attempt to assess this species risk in various regions of the eastern U.S., and their capacity to adapt to a changing climate, through a series of modeling schemes using species distribution models, life history traits, and dispersal models. We develop species tables, graphs, and maps of risk for particular regions, and have begun to assess some means of adaptation, including models of assisted migration.